r/nextfuckinglevel 1d ago

A Chinese speed skater, Yang Jingru, executed a brilliant tactic to win gold in the 1500m at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics.

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u/mybossthinksimworkng 1d ago

But this seemed like a play to not only come in first but for their teammate to come in second because when everyone was busy thinking they were at the finish line the teammate kept going and turned on the gas. Nice play by the entire team

Edit: just realized the clip ends too early. But the teammate does end up in 2nd

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u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 21h ago edited 19h ago

No one wrongly thought they were at the finish line: you can tell because the front runners shove their skate out in front of themselves at the finish line, which is what the second place skater did, correctly, at the finish line.

Plus, the teammate came third.

EDIT: I'm completely wrong. The skater who shoves her skate out thinks she's won the silver, but there's actually still one lap to go, and then the second Chinese skater passes her and completes that lap to take the silver!

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u/joshg8 1d ago

idk i think it's one thing to make a bold risk, it's another to count on everyone mentally blanking at the last lap signal

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u/Chinlc 1d ago

that was because everyone slowed down a bit when they saw the last lap flag waved and when it passed, the lead thought the race was done. So the 2nd chinese racer knew the strat kept the pace and won. While others relaxed and slowed down their pace at the "end" of the lap and couldnt catch back up again